DD and I agreed today to foster four kittens. We think they are about 10 days old, and they are sooo cute!

Nothing financial here - just wanted to share some fun news and a sweet picture.

This morning, DD and I spent some time at the library and brought home a big stack of books. This afternoon, we spent an hour outside with the scooter (DD's) and roller skates (mine). A fun day on an otherwise dreary, gray, June-gloom kind of day.

Tomorrow we have plans to meet a few friends at a park near the beach, and on Wednesday I'm taking DD to the zoo (membership is already paid for).

I got DD a razor scooter at Target yesterday. She's currently practicing in the house. :O Probably not the best idea.

A parent of a friend from her class set up a web page to organize different play dates and outings over the summer. I think that's a great idea - she'll serve as a point of contact, so when someone has something to suggest, she can add it to the page. We all have each other's email addresses and phone numbers already, so getting in touch with one another is pretty simple.

I'm off to school today to meet with one of the teachers and go over what curricula and resources are available for teaching the 7th grade class next year. That's the one class I feel like I need to concentrate on the most, as it doesn't have a great curriculum already in place from what I understand. I could be wrong - that would be a good thing to be wrong about. I found out that my first class starts at 8 a.m. which is also when DD's class starts. I was hoping I'd start later, but it didn't work out that way. I still need to work out when I'll be teaching my other two classes.

DD and I got DH his Father's Day gift, I got DD a new swim suit, and I got myself a couple of swim suits and a couple of tank tops. Old Navy had tank tops for $6 each, and swim separates for $10 each, so it didn't cost too much, all things considered. The last time I bought a swim suit DD was an infant, so I'm not going to feel too bad about spending $40 every six years.

DD's suit is super cute on her - oh, to be 6 again and have swim suit shopping be fun.

We're off to the pool today for our frist ever swim in the new pool! We're both looking forward to it. So grateful for sunny weather and summer vacation!

I looked up information about the community pool here in town. It looks like I can buy ten passes for DD and I for a total of $60, so I think that's what I'll do. We'll see how often DD and I go this summer - it sounds fun, and the pool will be open every afternoon for recreation swimming/playing.

We have our zoo membership, so any trips there this summer will only cost us gas for the trip. Same goes for the natural history museum, although I think that one runs out in August.

We may go roller skating too. I have skates, so we only have to rent for DD.

The park and beach are, of course, free. As is the library.

DD agreed to go through my cookbooks and pick one new recipe to try together each week. I think that will be good for both of us.

Well, well. I got a check today from ebookdrop. No letter of explanation for why it took so long, no apology, no mention of my BBB complaint. Just a check and a promotional postcard encouraging one to use their service! Poor all around, but at least I got my measly six bucks.

DD and I made smoothies for lunch today, and I think later on we're heading out to target. She won a $25 gift card there and wants to see what they have for Polly Pockets - in particular, she wants to get a Polly house. So we'll head over there in a bit and see what they have. She got a $25 gift certificate to a local bookstore, so we went there a couple of days ago to pick out some new books. Lucky girl.

Tomorrow is her last day of school. I need to look into getting some sort of pass for the community pool so that we can go when we want without having to worry about carrying cash around all summer. I'd like to think buying a pass would be cheaper too, but who knows.

I think we'll have polenta lasagna tonight - I have all the ingredients, including enough basil on my plant to use homegrown basil.

Just kind of plugging away, trying to keep unnecessary spending to a minimum and necessary spending low.

I got a rebate check in the mail today, and my free Swiffer duster sample (along with some coupons that I'll stick in the coupon train for Swiffer products). That was all that was in the mail, amazingly enough. No junk mail, no bills. Just that stuff.


Auction: $51.34
Rebate: $4.99
Total: $56.33

Pending:
Rite Aid rebate ($20+) (waiting)
Survey $5 (waiting)
Survey $2 (waiting)

Saved another $6 using coupons today, bringing my total up to $29.03

Auction Update:
+56.80, -2.51, -2.95 = $51.34 to add to challenge total.

Total to add for June: $51.34

Pending:
Rite Aid rebate ($4.99) (waiting)
Rite Aid rebate ($20+) (waiting)
Survey $5 (waiting)
Survey $2 (waiting)

The total for my three auctions came in at $56.80. eBay final value fees come to $2.95. Once I know my PayPal fees I'll have a grand total to add to my challenge.

I'm glad that I listed these. I have some more to try, so maybe I'll do that some time this week.

Boy oh boy was the Vons here unhappy about my using my two coupons for 10 free 2 liter bottles of soda. I got into an agrument withthe mangaer - can you believe it? I ended up so frustrated that I walked out, leaving all ten bottles at the register, in the cart. And that, my friends, is not something I normally do!

I walked to another store in the plaza where they happily took my coupons.

I need to craft a letter to Vons' headquarters, outlining the entire experience, from the checker who didn't greet me or even smile and referred to me as though I weren't there when talking with the manager, to the manager who claimed he couldn't do anything because it was "policy" but lo and behold that policy kept changing during the course of the interchange. Top it off with their disdain that I wouldn't swipe my d@$& club card and I'm done with them altogether.

Almost every coupon has the words "One per purchase" printed on it - the majority do, at the very least. Now, does this mean you can only use one coupon for your entire purchase? I don't think so! This is what the manager and checker tried to tell me. If I have two coupons and buy what's required for each coupon, I can use each coupon. If it said something like one per customer or household, well, that would be different. But it doesn't.

I'm still angry at how I was treated. I am the freaking customer! It was a bad experience all around.

My auctions are up around $20 and end tomorrow night. Glad I put the magazines online - someone is going to be glad to have them, and I am starting to declutter and free up some shelf space.

The dinner party last night was very fun. It was nice enough to eat outside, so we all sat around and chatted in the fresh air. DH strung our mini Chinese lanternesque lights, and we had the white lights on around our out-building as well. It looked festive.

Saved another $5.20 with coupons today, bringing my net savings total up to $23.03. Vons had some things on special that I also had coupons for, which was good. In fact, I think all but one item that I used a coupon on was also on sale. They don't double coupons anymore, unfortunately.

Slowly I will get the hang of making the most of coupons, find coupons for the items I buy, and so forth. Today's purchases would have been about $76; I got out for about $56. A 6-pack of beer and two bottles of wine really impacted the overall total. Maybe they should go in the entertainment category instead of groceries, since it's for our dinner party this evening.

I emailed Vons/Safeay with a complaint today about a recipe I tried on the box of a store brand item. It was awful; truly, it was so bad that I felt compelled to write to them and see if there had been an error in printing the recipe! We'll see if I get a reply.

Looking at Quicken, on average each month so far this year we're spending...

Groceries: $337
Dining Out: $162
Gasoline: $162
Utilities: $120
Education: $407
Gifts: $53

I'd like to see groceries come down under $300 and dining come in around $120. Gasoline is about as low as it can be; DH bikes to work and I carpool, so there isn't a lot of room there to whittle it down. Utilities are OK - that's gas, electric and water. Education is basically ballet and school tuitions and niether is negotiable, but if I can get to a 75% position at DD's school then we'll start getting a reduction in tuition. I have gifts given budgeted at about $50/month, so we're doing pretty well there.

Interesting to look at.

DH got us a reduction in our DSL for a year, I think, so that's down to about $14/month.

Our mortgage is currently about 35% of DH's take-home pay, but at least it's a 20-year loan and not a 30-year. I think we have less than 17 years left on it. Might be nice to actually make a note of when our last payment is due, assuming we don't send along any extra payments along the way. The percent of income goes down by about 5% if I actually factor in all the extra income from DH's freelance work, his tutoring, my tutoring, etc. Counting my salary next year and no extra income at all, the percent will be about 30% of our take-home. That's the whole idea behind my working - make enough so that DH doesn't have to do any extra work if he doesn't want to, or he can work the hours extra he wants to and we'll be able to get ahead of where we're at now.

And I'm trying to keep it that way. I'll be spending tomorrow - brunch with a friend, groceries, possibly gas for the car - so today is a good day to not spend anything. And, I'm trying to simplify my record-keeping, so the fewer receipts to deal with the better.

I made smoothies for me and DD after school, and they were really good - lemonade, frozen strawberries and vanilla yogurt. Hopefully that will eliminate the Thursday afternoon cravings for something to eat and drink while waiting for her at ballet.

Dinner tonight...probably something easy like bean and cheese burritos. Nothing elaborate, but it will taste good enough.

We're having friends over for dinner tomorrow night, and I have a few things to get tomorrow. One family is bringing a salad, and I need to call the other family to see what they want to bring (they offered to bring something as well). I'm planning on pasta - good for adults and kids alike, and easy to make a lot of (there will be 6 adults, 3 kids, 1 toddler and 1 baby).

I'm having brunch with a friend tomorrow who's going to be in town unexpectedly. I'm looking forward to that very much - seeing her, that is, although the brunch will be nice too.

For May:
$5 gift card (received)
$20 gas rebate (received)
$8.48 Rite Aid rebate (received)
Lowe's $20 gc (received - net $19)
Gas $20 gc (received - net $19)
Lowe's $25 gc
Joann $10 gc
$1 Longs rebate
DVD: $9.88
eBay fees: -$1.35
Interest: $.95
AdSense: $13.32
Current total for May: $130.28

Total for 2006: 413.17

Pending:
Rite Aid rebate ($4.99) (waiting)
Rite Aid rebate ($20+) (waiting)
Survey $5 (waiting)
Survey $2 (waiting)